Which one is in Austrian?
I'm going to assume oostenrjik since it's the most different, who uses autriche?

Autriche is French for Austria. And then there's autruche that's French for ostrich .

Originally Posted by Lightfist

I don't really get how Bloodlust fits Shamans...

"I need to calm the elements, and through our sacred bond we will - wait, is that a fucking boss? I'M SO FUCKING ANGRY! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM! NO, WAIT! I'M GOING TO RAPE HIM THEN KILL HIM! WITH SPOONS! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Right now it would be hard to teach ppl how to call countries in their native names, cuz not all nations has wealthy lexicon, try to say 60 in my language (lithuanian) : Sesiasdesimt, a bit hard? S should be called as sch tho:}

How did you learn that? They might have some weird pronunciation, that's for sure

Originally Posted by Cattaclysmic

Because other languages are weird...

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia - good luck pronouncing it! I shall call it Dave.

I have no problem pronouncing it, actually. Something like "Lyooblyana", to use "English", correct?
Also, many of these cities that were once in the Austrian-Hungarian Kingdom still have German names as well.
Bratislava - Pressburg
Ljubljana - Leibach
Cluj - Klausenburg
Sibiu - Hermannstadt etc

German has a lot of "own" names for cities (e.g. Mailand for Milano or Kapstadt for Cape Town), but not as many or as weird as the French...
München (Munich) - Monaco (wat?)
Aachen - Aix-la-Chapelle
London - Londres

Originally Posted by Majad

wat

Korea is called Hanguk? For real? I had no idea... Then was it called Korean before or was it always Hanguk?

I think it was in here somewhere. Korea is the name of a dynasty.
There are many other examples of countries whose names are completely different in their own language.
Finland - Suomi
Hungary - Magyar (forgive me, theres a ´ ` somewhere I think)
Japan - Nippon
...

Originally Posted by Gothicshark

Many international names for regions are either the way the first European travelers interpreted what they heard, or in Europe the old name given by the Romans with 2000 years of degeneration.

examples: Germany is the degradation of Germania the old Latin name for the region. The French call it Allemagne which is how the French call the Alemanni tribe who lived in Germany. Deutschland which is the official name of the country comes from Ludwig der Teutsche, who is sort of the father of post Roman Germany.

Nicely put together.

Originally Posted by Wikiy

Lol so easy. "Lj" is pronounced basically by starting off with an "L" and transiting to "y" as in "yes", all in 1 consonant.

For some reason, in my language, Vienna is called Beč (Bech is the pronunciation). Apparently, after googling a bit, it's because "Wien" means a sausage on Hungarian (in case of confusion, Croatia was ruled by Hungary and Austria for centuries), and a sausage is called bečkerek on Croatian. And people shortened it. Although I've never heard the word "bečkerek" in my life so I'm a a bit confused myself.

I can't really imagine Wien is called Bec because of the sausage, it's the same in many other parts of German-speaking Europe. Wiener (Würstchen) is the sausage, deriving (afaik) from some butcher named Wiener (while not being from Vienna), and Wien is the city. We don't call Hamburg or Frankfurt differently either :P

Originally Posted by Mayhem

i actually like the different words for the country i´m from

austria, autriche, oostenrjik

I especially like that the French called Marie Antoinette (who was from Austria and not all too popular in France) "l'Autrichienne" (the Austrian (female)), but pronounced it like "l'autre chienne" (the other ...female dog )

Originally Posted by Bolson13

Thats actually Dutch and it should say Oostenrijk. So the i and J turned around.
In German it would be Ostenreich, with dots on the O if I am not mistaken.

Österreich

Originally Posted by Hraklea

I find this curious too, specially because people don't translate brazilian cities. We (brazilians) say "Nova York" rather than "New York", "Carolina do Sul" rather than "South Carolina", "São Francisco" rather than "San Francisco"... but I never saw an american saying "January River" rather than "Rio de Janeiro", or "Saint Paul" rather than "São Paulo".

Yeah Brazilian/Portugese is funnny in that matter. Do you also call LA "Ciudad de los Angelos" or something ?

No point mentioning these bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

"I need to calm the elements, and through our sacred bond we will - wait, is that a fucking boss? I'M SO FUCKING ANGRY! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM! NO, WAIT! I'M GOING TO RAPE HIM THEN KILL HIM! WITH SPOONS! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE!"

They actually did this in the netherlands. I don't know the other examples, but the chinese city used to be Peking in dutch, but it is changed more and more to Beijing, so it's is more like the actual chinese pronounciation

nice map, historically when the Romans invaded Gaul, they encountered 2 different tribes, the Celtics and the Alamanni tribe. The Celtics covered the northwest, coastal, the islands and Iberia the Alamanni where in the North east, and the central parts of Gaul. Looking at that map sort of confirms the roman placement, As for the Britons that is the Roman name for the coastal Celts, they ranged from Portugal to the Netherlands, they also lived on the many islands off of Gaul. Today only one group of Celtic descendants claim to be Britons they live in 'Brittany France' However this group of Celts where the Ocean going Celtic tribe, ie the fishermen. Just like the Druids where the Spiritual leaders of the Celtics.

The Alamanni btw are the Germans, they never got concurred by Rome. the Celts were concurred, with two notable exceptions. The Scottish Celtic Tribes who caused the Romans to build a wall to prevent them from coming into Roman territory and the Romans avoided going to Ireland.

What that map shows fairly clearly and what history has often speculated was that the Alamanni where a tribe of Celtic culture. The lines of trade and cultural connection of the Celtic peoples prior to roman influence spanned almost all of western Europe north of the Alps, they built roads had a common language.

They actually did this in the netherlands. I don't know the other examples, but the chinese city used to be Peking in dutch, but it is changed more and more to Beijing, so it's is more like the actual chinese pronounciation

I actually looked that up once and I believe it comes from the cantonese word for Beijing if you pronounce it somewhat incorrect. That is how that B became a P if i'm not mistaken. Also, they have this word in French and German as well.

It is probably because the European ships would sail to Guangzhou where they speak Cantonese of course. So the Europeans probably had some more things that they would pronounce in Cantonese in stead of Mandarin.

Pequim is portugues for Beijing if checked correctly. They were the ones that had the most power in Guangzhou if i'm not mistaken. The Dutch were mostly in modern day Taiwan.

The Romans called all uncivilized (from their viewpoint) people beyond the borders of the empire barbarians. The lands beyond the borders of the empire were sometimes referred to as Barbaricum.

Yeah, that's the name I meant. I remember seeing it on a map. But the label was placed in northwestern Africa. The map displayed Magna Germania to the north though, so I guess they did differentiate between all sorts of 'lesser' races.

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 07:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by semaphore

Not really, though. That the people's predominant language changed (due to merging with locals) doesn't mean they moved anywhere. I mean, France/Francia. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see a connection there.

You're right, the Franks were Germanic people who lived in northern France, western Germany and current Belgium and Netherlands (except far north Netherlands)
But I just think the name for France doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because only the people living in the north were Franks. And they even merged with locals and adopted the Roman language later.

That's why I say the area that remained closest to the Franks is current Netherlands and Belgium. And they speak the Dutch language, which is also closest to the language spoken by the Franks.

Leftcoast 2 blocks from the beach, down the street from a green haze called Venice.

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Originally Posted by Hardstyler01

Yeah, that's the name I meant. I remember seeing it on a map. But the label was placed in northwestern Africa. The map displayed Magna Germania to the north though, so I guess they did differentiate between all sorts of 'lesser' races.

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 07:09 PM ----------

You're right, the Franks were Germanic people who lived in northern France, western Germany and current Belgium and Netherlands (except far north Netherlands)
But I just think the name for France doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because only the people living in the north were Franks. And they even merged with locals and adopted the Roman language later.

That's why I say the area that remained closest to the Franks is current Netherlands and Belgium. And they speak the Dutch language, which is also closest to the language spoken by the Franks.

The Franks where the post Roman expansion of the German Tribes, they push out the last of the Roman and Celtic peoples and dominated All the land from the Danish Peninsula to Rome, and from the borders of Poland to Spain.

They where called Franks by the Romans prior to the fall of Rome, Here is a 5th Century depiction of ethic groups by the failing Roman empire.

What is interesting is that in 100bce the Celts dominated the occupation of all these lands.

What you have is the Romans pushed the Celts out of much of Europe and hired Germans to fill in many of the needed vacancies, Because the Germans were unconcerned the Romans made treaties and hired them for food production, and border guards. The 'Huns', 'Vandals' and 'Goths' where some of these German tribes used for Mercenary work, so by the 5th century you see that the Roman Mercenaries became the dominate cultures after the Romans pulled out. It's also related to how a German Tribe became the rulers of North Africa.

Essentially Most of Europe was Celtic, then the Romans came pushed the Celts into corners, hired Eastern Germans to do the Grunt work, and then left everything to the Germans. The Germans divided themselves up into groups using the derogatory names that the Romans used for them as badges and titles. And reshaped Europe into the current map.

Originally you where either a Celt or a German or further east a slave... oops Slavic (maygars).

Portugal is a peculiar case. Originally, the city of Porto (which we call O'Porto in Spanish) was called Portugal (Portus Cale in Latin). When the county of Portugal became independent, both the new country and the city received the same name. Eventually the city dropped it becoming only "o Porto" (Portuguese for "the harbor") as it was the most important harbor of Portugal.

I'm sorry to say that's really not correct... the city of Porto has it's name derived from the region here - back when there was no Spain nor Portugal, but rather the different iberian kingdoms - that was called Condado Portucalense (a county). When the leader of that county rebeled against his mother and step father, who were in league with the kingdoms that later became Spain, and by Papal Decree in 1143, Afonso Henriques was no longer count of the region, but king of a new kingdom called Portugal. Only years later, the city of Porto was founded at were the Condado Portucalense used to be, as capital of the kingdom (after Guimarães).

Portus Cale was indeed the root of the name, but for the county, not the city, as each were separeted by many years. It used to be a great trading port during the roman times in the iberian peninsule, hence its name.

The Oporto moniker was only atributed to the city in the XVII century, after Porto Wine became so famous, and people of that era needed a way to tell apart city and wine.

I'm sorry to say that's really not correct... the city of Porto has it's name derived from the region here - back when there was no Spain nor Portugal, but rather the different iberian kingdoms - that was called Condado Portucalense (a county). When the leader of that county rebeled against his mother and step father, who were in league with the kingdoms that later became Spain, and by Papal Decree in 1143, Afonso Henriques was no longer count of the region, but king of a new kingdom called Portugal. Only years later, the city of Porto was founded at were the Condado Portucalense used to be, as capital of the kingdom (after Guimarães).

Portus Cale was indeed the root of the name, but for the county, not the city, as each were separeted by many years. It used to be a great trading port during the roman times in the iberian peninsule, hence its name.

The Oporto moniker was only atributed to the city in the XVII century, after Porto Wine became so famous, and people of that era needed a way to tell apart city and wine.

Oh interesting! i had always assumed that the Portus Cale city had kept existing. I guess it makes sense, only a few cities from the roman era remained after the decay of the empire and the germanic invasions, and even if new cities took the same place and name, they had to be basically rebuilt and refounded.
Thanks for clearing up that mistake!

Many international names for regions are either the way the first European travelers interpreted what they heard, or in Europe the old name given by the Romans with 2000 years of degeneration.

examples: Germany is the degradation of Germania the old Latin name for the region. The French call it Allemagne which is how the French call the Alemanni tribe who lived in Germany. Deutschland which is the official name of the country comes from Ludwig der Teutsche, who is sort of the father of post Roman Germany.

Germany as the center of Europe (if you exclude far east Europe) is the country with the most different names given by its neighbours :

Current spelling in many languages occured very late and some countries are still reforming spelling, it's true for comun words and even more true for name of countries, region, rivers, city, etc. Those words from anoher language are sometimes difficult to pronounce so the spelling is neccesarly different from the original language.

Also you have languages that translate phoneticly every foreign words (english/french football, portugues futebol) or were used to (london is londres in french, but new york is also new york and not nouillorque )